


Cosmogonic Cycle

by direpenguins



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, First Meetings, Pre-Canon, and subsequent meetings, young diamonds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2019-11-07 01:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17951417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/direpenguins/pseuds/direpenguins
Summary: "What are you doing here?"





	1. Firmament

Diamond emerged in darkness, lit only by the cold glow of distant stars. Looking up, she understood that she must bring order to those stars one day. But she could not say where this understanding came from.

She lowered her gaze to the landscape that surrounded her. There was little to look at in any direction besides bare, flat rock eroded by the powerful winds, extending as far as her eyes could see; and at her feet, the gaping fissure where she had broken through the crust and pushed her way to the surface. She sat down where she was because it was as good as any other place. The wind buffeted her relentlessly, whipping the long, smooth strands of her hair around her, but she paid it no mind. She rested one hand over the gem that gleamed at the center of her chest, and contemplated the mystery of her existence.

She was vaguely aware of the passage of time, although she had no way to measure it. No sun ever rose over the horizon to illuminate her. It seemed that the planet was tidally locked to its star, with one side perpetually facing the light, and the other side perpetually in darkness. The fact that she had knowledge of these things was yet another mystery to be wondered at.

Eventually, a bright point became apparent on the horizon, far too small to be a long-delayed sunrise. She fixed all her attention on this new puzzle. Apart from its brightness, its warm hue made it stand out from the environment. Yellow, it occurred to her, was the name of this color.

Diamond sat and watched the yellow dot grow larger and larger. The flatness of the landscape made it difficult to judge distance or speed; but from what she could tell, it was an object of some size moving rapidly over the planet’s surface. Curiosity pricked at her. As it drew nearer, she stood up, hoping it would pass close enough for her to get a look at it.

Just then, it stopped.

When it started moving again after a few moments, its trajectory had changed. Diamond realized with a jolt that it was moving under its own volition, and it was heading straight for her.

By the time the object was close enough that she could hear its approach over the sound of the wind, it was going so fast that she thought it would shoot right past her and plow on toward the opposite horizon. Instead, it decelerated, the friction tearing up the rocky ground and sending up a small cloud of coarse dust that was quickly blown away.

There it stood, separated from her by a distance several times the length of her arm. She took a good look at it—at _her_ , Diamond realized, for this was a person. A being like herself, but not herself. Someone Other. And as Diamond stared, the Other stared back just as piercingly.

Diamond was suddenly more aware of her own physical form, and the ways it was similar yet strikingly different to the one in front of her. The color, for one. She had always taken hers to be the same as the grayish rock all around her, but now she could see that she was more of a blue.

The Other was the first to speak. “Who are you?”

A voice that cut sharp and sure through the howl of the wind. They were the first words Diamond had ever heard; she wondered what her own voice would sound like.

She answered: “Diamond.”

She watched two luminous eyes widen, then narrow. It was a strange thrill to realize that this Someone Other was having thoughts of her own, that Diamond was not privy to. While the Other stood silent, pondering those unspoken thoughts, Diamond’s eyes drifted downward over a form that was undeniably similar to what she had discerned of her own. Two legs, two arms, a torso, and on the chest, a trapezoidally-cut gem that seemed to resonate with familiar power...

_Oh_ , she thought, and out loud she said, “You are Diamond as well.”

It was a realization, not a question. Nevertheless, the Other Diamond nodded in answer. _Yes_.

Fascinating. Diamond wanted to know more; she wanted this Other Diamond to come closer. She held out her hand, palm facing outward, and was gratified when the Other immediately drew near. They pressed their two hands together. Five fingers, each of a similar length to their counterpart. They were both Diamonds, and yet they were not exactly the same; they were not the same, and yet they were both Diamonds.

She had to know more. “What are you doing here?”

“You were standing here,” said the Other. “I wanted to see you.”

“You noticed me when I stood up, and you altered your course,” said Diamond, and the Other nodded. “But where were you heading before that?”

“Forward. Have you been here all this time?”

Diamond was not sure of the scope or parameters defining “all this time.” One of the disadvantages of having separate minds: the potential for misunderstanding. “I emerged here,” she said. “I’ve never been anywhere else.”

The Other inclined her head toward the horizon, in the direction from where she had come. “I emerged on the other side, where the light is. The planet is tidally—”

“—tidally locked, yes. How do we know that?”

The Other Diamond arched one eyebrow; an expression both shocking and compelling in its asymmetry. “Because the same side always faces the sun, of course.”

“I mean, where does that knowledge come from?” said Diamond. “Why do we know what a tidally-locked planet is?”

“Because we need to know it? It would be a great bother if we came into existence not knowing something like that.”

“A bother to whom?”

“To us, in accomplishing our natural purpose.”

Diamond found herself glancing upward; as if confirming her unspoken thought, the Other did the same. Their eyes dropped back to each other at the same time.

When Diamond spoke again, she heard a strange hush in her own voice, in spite of the wind. “Do we truly have a purpose, then?”

“Why else would we be here?”

This Other answered with such authority, with no hesitation. Did she really know so much? Diamond began to wonder if she herself had come into existence at a disadvantage, with crucial information lacking.

Diamond slipped her long blue fingers between the yellow ones pressed against them, taking note of how easily they fit together. Leaning in closer, she searched the Other’s face, as if she would be able to see the thoughts shining behind those eyes. “Did you know there would be two of us?” she asked. “Is that... why you came all this way? You were looking for me?”

“No, I...” For a moment, the Other shied back from the sudden nearness of Diamond’s face. They remained anchored together by their clasped hands. “There was no one... nothing of interest on the other side. It seemed like I should keep moving until I found something.”

Diamond felt her fingers being squeezed lightly. “But you didn’t know there would be anything on this side either,” she said. “You didn’t know I was here until you saw me.”

“I didn’t. But you _are_ here, and I love you.”

Again, spoken with such absolute certainty. Everything about this Other Diamond seemed to draw her in. “Why?”

When the reply did not follow immediately, Diamond realized that she had not specified whether she meant “Why am I here?” or “Why do you love me?” She herself was not sure which one she was more eager to know. Instead of elaborating, she studied the thoughtful crease between two yellow eyes far warmer than the pale, remote stars.

Perhaps this Other Diamond did not speak from any secret well of knowledge, but tossed out answers anticipating, or hoping, that they would be borne out by reality—the same way she had set out to cross hundreds of thousands of miles of empty terrain without any certainty that anything was waiting for her. Or perhaps it was Diamond’s questions that compelled the Other to respond, the same way Diamond’s outstretched hand had compelled her to close the space between them.

After a few moments, the Other Diamond laid her free hand over their two interlocked ones, and gave an answer.

“You and I must have been made for each other.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, the idea of Yellow and Blue emerging on the light and dark sides of a tidally-locked planet is probably a bit cutesy; but I couldn't resist. This is one of those things that's been sitting in my drafts for a long, long time and I'm not sure it even fits my current headcanons anymore about the Diamonds' origins or early lives, but I'd better post it anyway.


	2. A more perfect union

White Diamond departed immediately after rendering her exquisite judgment on Yellow’s first sole colony. Kindergartens, warp farms, and plasma beds, bustling production centers with hundreds of thousands of Gems working in neat lines like a crystal lattice—millennia of labor, planning and frustration, development and redevelopment—all summed up and evaluated with a single sentence.

“Well, it’s much as everyone expected of you, dear.”

Before Yellow could decide whether it was worth it to press for clarification, White was already sweeping toward the towering bust of her ship, the sublime light of her mind having moved on to more important things.

Yellow stood watching the ship disappear into the sky. _Much as expected_ —that was a good thing, wasn’t it? Unless White had expected the colony to be deficient, and found that expectation fulfilled? The uncertainty set her jaw in a rigid line; it was almost worse than being told off outright. Almost.

Her mood lifted once she turned her attention to the new ship White had left on the ramp. It had the form of a sleek, powerful right arm, clearly intended to fit onto the torso of White’s ship. But instead of matching the gleaming white finish of that much larger vessel, it was Yellow’s own color. It was made for her. When she reached out, she could feel every part of the ship hum to life, ready to respond to her command like it was a part of her own form.

White had never given her anything like this before. Yellow told herself that she didn’t need acknowledgment or reward to do her work; that wasn’t the point of it. But this had to be a good sign. Surely, someone with an unsatisfactory colony would not have warranted such a fine gift.

Best of all, the ship was powered with its own gravity drive. Prior to that, only White’s ship had such a drive, and only White knew what went into creating it. Every other ship in the fleet had to limp along at the glacial pace of eight times the speed of light.

Yellow resolved to have her most adequate technicians analyze the engine at the earliest opportunity. If they could determine how to replicate the technology with available resources, someday every Gem ship could be equipped with one, and even the lowliest scout vessel or drone would be able to cross the vast interstellar distances between Homeworld and the outer frontier in the time it took to write a report.

It would have to wait, however. Right now, she had a more urgent mission in mind.

With a ship like this, she could go see Blue for the first time in 2,800 years.

 

 

It wasn’t until a third Diamond—not new like they were, but immeasurably ancient and grand—arrived on that small, tidally-locked planet that the two of them truly understood what a Diamond was supposed to be like. In the centuries to come, they would grow accustomed to the feeling of inadequacy, would have time for it to settle into their gems and become as unnoticed as the background radiation of the universe. But back then, it was a new and strange sensation, and their immediate reaction had been to hide themselves.

But she had known where they were, had called them out. They emerged, sheepish and awed, and when they both introduced themselves, that resplendent being had laughed. “Oh no, little ones, _I_ am Diamond,” she told them. “ _You_ are a Yellow Diamond and a Blue Diamond.”

The two new Diamonds looked at each other for a moment. “If it’s our colors that distinguish us,” said Blue Diamond, “are you... White Diamond?”

“White isn’t a color, dear,” she had replied with a thin smile. “It’s all colors being reflected at once. But why not? Yes, I could be White Diamond.”

Even if two of them were not quite of the same quality as the third—or rather, the first—three Diamonds together made for an irresistible force. Planet after planet fell to them. But eventually, in order to expand the empire to further reaches of space, it became necessary for the three to go their separate ways: White Diamond at the center maintaining hold over their possessions, and Yellow and Blue to opposite ends of the galaxy to conquer new worlds.

The extreme distances involved meant that once White dropped Yellow and Blue off in their respective regions of space, with a few ships and just enough resources to create a preliminary batch of Gems, they were on their own.

Yellow had been alone once, when she first emerged into the scorching daylight of that little planet. She walked hundreds of thousands of miles until she found someone else, another Diamond, and realized that she was one of two... and eventually, three. But this time there would be no crossing the distance between them, not under her own power. Only White had a ship that could make that journey, and White expected them, as Diamonds, to be self-sufficient as she had once been.

With all the work Yellow had to do—locating and subjugating a suitable planet, creating Gems, building the colony—she had plenty to occupy her mind and crowd out useless, melancholy thoughts of Blue Diamond, all the way on the opposite arm of the galactic spiral, so far out of reach that she might as well not exist.

But now that her gravity drive made crossing the galaxy a trivial matter, Yellow found she could think of nothing other than seeing Blue immediately. And so, having tasked a few ranking Gems with overseeing the colony for the meantime, she set a course for Blue’s planet.

 

 

The first thing Yellow noticed as she descended over the planet’s central metropolis was a ship similar to her own—a colossal left arm, gleaming blue under a teal sky. The sight of it made Yellow uneasy, though she wasn’t sure why. She pushed the feeling away as she docked her own ship next to it.

Gems walking along the open bridges and walkways stopped dead in their tracks to gape at Yellow as she strode past. When she demanded to know where to find Blue Diamond, a pair of goggle-eyed Topazes pointed mutely in the direction of the city center.

The short-distance transport system here consisted of hovering platforms, which would move between designated points at set times. It was maddeningly slow and inefficient compared to the warp tubes Yellow had set up in most of her cities. What it did allow for, however, was an unobstructed and leisurely view of the capital.

Yellow had only thought of making her colony productive, of maximizing her Gems and resources. The cities she built reflected that end, all ramrod-straight obelisks and unadorned tower blocks at perfectly spaced intervals. Blue had apparently done something very different. Her main city was laced throughout with vaulted bridges, spires, and carved arches, obviously designed for their aesthetic as much as any practical purpose.

As Yellow considered the gempower and materials necessary for such extravagant construction, the hovering platform turned a corner, and she was confronted with the sight of Blue Diamond.

It was a monumental statue seated in the middle of a wide open plaza. Its left hand, raised toward the city, was almost the size of the ship Yellow had seen earlier. Its right hand cradled a massive spherical building made of pale blue marble.

Yellow had no patience for the affectation called art, most likely developed among some higher-ranking Gems who liked to show off that they had enough unstructured time to create things that served no useful purpose. Blue, of course, loved art; it was only to be expected that she would propagate it in her colony, among her Gems. Yellow’s Gems knew better than to try and impress _her_ with such fripperies.

Nonetheless, staring at that towering statue of Blue, Yellow felt something lift within her. A properly made Gem should not need any kind of motivation—not feelings of pride, nor anticipation of reward, nor fear of punishment—to carry out the function she was made for. Yet there was something to the fact that the Gems here had only to look up while moving from one task to another to be reminded of just what kind of being they served.

The features were unmistakably those of Blue Diamond, but this was a Blue that Yellow had yet to meet. A Blue who ruled as an authority in her own right, over a planet she had conquered by her own power, with Gems she had designed according to her preferences and allocated according to her will.

A Blue who had a ship like Yellow’s just sitting at dock.

Yellow wondered when White had visited this colony, and what she had had to say about it. If Blue received the same gift, had she also done “much as expected”? Or had she managed to exceed White’s expectations?

And what about Blue’s expectations? Yellow found herself wondering, for the first time, how she would measure up.

The sphere in the monument’s right hand was evidently made to resemble the planet itself in miniature. The floating platform pulled up against the wide walkway at the equator, by the largest entrance. Inside, most of the upper half of the sphere was taken up by a single chamber. At the center of that vast circular floor was a throne, bathed in a column of light from the oculus above. There, more imposing and more permanent than her monument outside, sat Blue Diamond.

She was speaking in clipped tones to a small battalion of Agates. The translucent stone of the floor was the same color as her clothing, making the ground beneath her seem to extend outward from the hems of her cloak, as if the entire colony had simply formed under her feet. Whatever this planet had once been, it was now no less than an extension of her being, cold and glimmering and perfect as she was.

Yellow thought of the first time she had laid eyes on Blue, on another planet where she had walked alone for hundreds of thousands of miles to find another Diamond waiting for her.

This time, however, Blue Diamond did not stand, and when she looked up and met Yellow’s eyes her exquisite brow wrinkled with displeasure. “What are you doing here?”

 _I wanted to see you_. Yellow clenched her hands into fists. “I was passing by on my way to Homeworld.”

“Passing by,” Blue echoed, incredulous. “Homeworld should be _between_ your sector and here.”

It was their first conversation in 2,802 years and 67 days. Yellow swallowed a retort that would surely have come out sounding whingy and petulant. Instead she looked up to appraise the chamber’s domed ceiling. Arching far overhead, it depicted the planet’s colonization in bas reliefs. “You seem to have been busy here,” she said, hoping she sounded as disinterested as White inspecting a crystal processing plant.

Blue stiffened in her seat. “You’ll _pardon me_ if I haven’t been able to prepare an appropriate welcome,” she said after a moment. Her tone, not warm to begin with, had dropped several degrees in temperature. “If I’d had some notice that you were coming—”

“What, you would have sent a platform to pick me up?” Yellow waved a hand impatiently. “Don’t trouble yourself. I told you, I’m only passing by.”

“You must have your colony well in hand if you can come all this way just to _pass by_.” A flicker of alarm showed on Blue’s face, then. “Did White Diamond send you here? I assured her— 

“Why would she send me? She can visit you herself. She already did, judging by that ship of yours.”

“She did... but the kindergartens were...” Blue shook her head. “Never mind. A minor delay, nothing more. I will deal with it. I was dealing with it when you arrived.” She gestured to indicate the Agates, still standing at attention off to one side and failing in their efforts not to gawk at Yellow.

“If you need help with your kindergartens, Blue, you could just ask me.”

Blue Diamond’s eyes went wide. She stared as if Yellow had suddenly shapeshifted a second head. The Agates began murmuring amongst themselves.

Blue raised a hand, and they fell silent again. “That,” she told them, “will be all.” They trooped out without any further prompting.

When the two Diamonds were alone, Blue stood at last, pushing herself up from her throne. “What...” She pressed a hand against her face. “What did you call me?”

Yellow blinked. “What? ’Blue’?” Having become accustomed to using the shortened name in her thoughts over the past couple of millennia, she had forgotten that she’d never had the opportunity to say it aloud. “It’s just a shorthand,” she said. “More efficient than saying the whole thing every time.”

Blue Diamond turned to look out through an archway as if she were inspecting her monument’s profile outside. “’Blue’ is a color,” she said, low and agitated, as if to herself. “It’s the modifier for ‘Diamond’, not the other way around. If anything, my shorthand should be ‘Diamond’.”

“We’re _all_ Diamond,” said Yellow, exasperated. “That was the whole point in distinguishing us by color.”

“How would I even know it was me? There are Blue Agates... Blue Topazes...”

“Do you really expect me to speak to my Topazes and Agates the way I speak with you?”

“I’m sure I don’t know how I should expect you to speak with me.” Blue made a sweeping gesture at her. “Apparently saying my entire name is so tiresome that you need to chop it into smaller pieces. Perhaps next time you should forego the name altogether and just grunt in my general direction.”

“Or _perhaps_ ,” said Yellow, “next time, I should forego making detours to colonies where my presence is so clearly unwelcome.”

She knew she had hit the mark from the way Blue stood rigid, unable to meet her gaze. “I should have been notified that you were coming.”

“Perhaps we need to create a cut of Gem whose only purpose is to follow us around and announce us wherever we go.”

“Perhaps.”

“Good, we’re in agreement. I’ll be sure to suggest it to White. To _White Diamond_ , that is.” With that, Yellow stormed out.

Several of the Agates loitering just outside, too slow to get out of the way, were nearly punted into the stratosphere as Yellow came barreling out. She could think of nothing else than to leave that place as fast as her ship could take her and run back to her colony where everything was ordered and precise and there were no pretentious sculptures and no fawning courtiers and no Blue Diamond.

The hovering platform was still several minutes away on its slow loop of the city center. Blue likely had her own dedicated platform for getting around, but Yellow didn’t know where to find it and she was damned if she was going to ask.

She let out an aggrieved sigh and began to pace back and forth. She could get to her ship faster just by leaping from building to building, but that would be undignified and would probably damage the architecture. She allowed herself a moment of pleasure at the thought of those beautiful carvings crumbling under her heel.

Yellow knew now why the sight of Blue’s ship had troubled her. It was presumably equipped with a gravity drive like hers and White’s, and yet it remained here at dock. Blue had not felt compelled to take off for the other side of the galaxy and see Yellow as soon as she had the means.

And why should she, when she had a colony to run?

Yellow’s pacing slowed to a stop. With every passing moment, she felt more and more foolish. She had had no purpose in coming to this planet; no justification for leaving her own. What proper Diamond would not be annoyed at such a needless disruption to her affairs? Why should Yellow have expected Blue to feel pleased to see her? To feel anything at all? Such reckless displays of emotion only served to make Yellow look even more like someone not fit to have her own colony.

If she had made a heaping clod of herself by coming to this planet out of turn, she could not compound her mistake by departing in the same manner. She ought to give her formal farewell before leaving Blue to hold court, undisturbed. Taking a breath to collect herself, she turned around and strode back through the entrance.

The inner door to the throne chamber slid open before her, and she slammed right into Blue Diamond running the other way 

The impact sent them both sprawling on the floor. Yellow grimaced at the thought that, on top of everything, she just had to knock the both of them onto their asses in front of Blue’s entire court.

But there were no Gems anywhere in sight. The great chamber was empty save for the two of them. Clambering to her feet, Yellow rushed over to give Blue a hand up.

“I thought you’d already gone,” said Blue. “Left me on my own for another three thousand years.” Her eyes glistened beneath her long lashes; she looked close to tears.

It was strange and discomfiting, to think of someone like Blue Diamond with tears in her eyes. Yellow wasn’t sure how to react. “I would have said goodbye first. 

“Always so quick with your hellos and goodbyes.”

“I should have let you know I was coming.” Not five minutes ago Yellow would have preferred to swallow white-hot plasma rather than offer such a concession; but seeing Blue like this, it slipped out easily, without even thinking about it.

Blue’s lips pressed together, upturned at the ends, the suggestion of a smile. “It’s so like you, though, to just appear like this,” she said. “I’d spent centuries imagining how I would receive you, when the time finally came for you to visit. I was going to invite you for a triumphal procession and grand ball, and dazzle you with all my infrastructure. Instead you dazzled _me_ , dropping out of the sky with no warning, like a bolt of lightning.” She removed her hand from Yellow’s and turned away, looking pained. “You caught me in such disarray; I couldn’t stand it.”

Yellow reached out and let the trailing edge of Blue’s cloak slide through her fingertips. “If this is disarray,” she said, “it must suit you.”

Blue’s head turned ever so slightly in Yellow’s direction. “As your work must suit you. You’ve become so magnificent.”

Yellow scoffed. “I’m the same as I ever was.”

“You see how my Gems can’t take their eyes off you.”

“They haven’t seen me before. They probably expected me to look like you. A Blue Diamond of a different color.”

A chuckle. “There you are again. So fixated on my color of all things.”

Yellow frowned. “I shortened your name carelessly. I never meant to insult you.”

“You didn’t insult me,” Blue said quickly, wheeling around to face her. “I really don’t mind. I... I like it. 

“You... like it?”

Rather than answering, Blue seemed to brace herself for a moment. Then she stepped within the orbit of Yellow’s arms and laid her head against Yellow’s gem.

Yellow couldn’t speak. She felt ice-cold and scorched all at once, and wasn’t sure whether to freeze solid or melt away. Her arms wrapped around Blue. For all their mass, they crumpled into each other like they were made of nothing at all.

“ _Yellow_.” Blue murmured the name as if she was tasting it. “Do you still love me?”

“Don’t ask pointless questions,” Yellow growled into her hair. “You know the answer.”

She felt a moment of disorientation when the floor suddenly seemed to be much further away than she had expected it to be. She stumbled and put a hand out to steady herself, nearly cracking some of the bas reliefs.

Why were her hands free? Just an eyeblink ago she had been holding her as tight as she could, with her arms around Blue’s waist, and her arms encircling Yellow’s neck...

She found herself briefly uncertain, then, as to just how many arms she had. But when she glanced downward to count them, her hands were unfamiliar to her—huge and powerful, like White’s, but a different color...

There was a blinding flash, and for the second time in several minutes, Yellow and Blue fell away from each other and hit the floor.

 

  

They didn’t speak a word about it. Not then, when they picked themselves up. Not once while Blue toured Yellow around her colony. If they never mentioned it, never acknowledged it in any way, they could both pretend that it had never even happened. Even thinking about it felt too precarious to Yellow, like anyone who looked at her would be able to guess what was on her mind, would be able to see her thoughts shining out from her gem.

She had worried, at first, that Blue was upset with her over this disastrous loss of control. She was reassured somewhat when it was time to leave and Blue took her hand for a moment—brief, perfunctory, save for the look in her eyes, shining with that same emotion that had passed between them then.

“I’ll see you soon,” was all Blue said.

Their silence on the matter was so complete that sometimes Yellow almost managed to convince herself that Blue had never even noticed their fusion at all; that Yellow was the only one who had to bear that shameful secret.

That illusion was shattered the first time they were both summoned back to White’s seat on Homeworld, to be welcomed and judged.

While giving White a very bland account of how she had stepped up Ruby production to make up for delays in the Quartz kindergartens, Blue managed to bring up the Rubies’ propensity for fusion. “Such an odd thing, the way they combine into one Gem, just like that,” she said, with a casual tone that, to Yellow, sounded far too practiced. “The result is so much bigger and hardier than a normal Ruby.”

“Which is not saying much,” said White.

“Yes, of course. I suppose it would be a different matter for, say, a Diamond.” There was no inquiry in Blue’s tone, no rising intonation of a question mark, but Yellow heard the question anyway.

White no doubt heard it too. “A Diamond, fusing?” Her laughter rang out and echoed within the cathedral of her head all around them 

Yellow wanted to laugh right along with her, and for Blue to do the same, so they could pretend the whole thing was a joke. But Yellow knew her laughter would come out strained; and Blue remained still, expectant.

“But you’re so silly,” White cooed. With one long finger, she tapped under Blue’s chin. “Imperfect Gems can fuse two or more of the same type together temporarily to create something with the flaws and weaknesses averaged out. But what would you get from a fusion between Diamonds?”

 _Don’t answer that_ , thought Yellow.

“A... more perfect Diamond?” Blue ventured.

White sighed, infinitely patient. “My dear, it’s a contradiction in terms. Something perfect by definition has no flaw. You cannot be _more_ perfect or _less_ perfect; either you are, or you are not.”

“Well,” said Blue, and Yellow could see her frantically spinning her wheels trying to ask something else without asking, without giving anything away, “but, for instance, assuming that—”

“Oh, Blue.” White’s smile was warm and bright as a nova. “Everyone just _loves_ your curiosity.”

Blue fell silent.

“It seems a bit vulgar, doesn’t it, to dwell on such topics while we’re all together like this?” White withdrew her hand and spread her cape out behind her. “Let’s talk about something more appropriate. Neither of you have chosen your next colony world yet. 

Yellow rushed in with “I’ve set up long range scanners and sent out several scouting expeditions within my sector,” as Blue offered “I’ve been building up my reserve of Agates in order to have a stronger invasion force,” both of them stumbling over each other to justify themselves to White, who silenced them with a flutter of her hand.

“Yes, yes. Fortunately, I’ve already found two planets which should be sufficient.” Two panels materialized in front of her, and she flicked them over to Blue and Yellow. “You may head out there and begin colonization, as soon as you can manage it,” she said, in a tone which meant “immediately.”

When the two of them continued to stand there, at a loss for words, White deigned to lower her arms and place a hand on Yellow’s shoulder and one on Blue’s. “Do smile, little ones,” she admonished. “You’ve already produced one more or less adequate colony apiece. Maybe next time you’ll manage to do something actually impressive.” 

 

 

Outside, Yellow grimly studied the data White had given her. Based on these readouts, her new planet was indeed rich in resources; but it had a dense biosphere and would require extensive terraforming, with heavy troop support. She would have her hands full for quite a while. On the other end of the docking platform, she saw Blue perusing her own readouts, with a disconsolate expression that remained as she looked up to watch Yellow approach with quick strides.

Yellow stood there for a moment, trying to marshal her words. She wanted to reassure Blue that it was all for the best, in service of building a perfect empire; to chide her for asking questions that would provoke White; to beg her not to let that mournful expression be the one Yellow had to try not to think about for the next two thousand years.

Instead, she said, “I’ll send you Agates and Citrines to bolster your forces. As many as you need. I have enough.”

Blue’s eyebrows went up. Her mouth quirked. “You’ll ‘send’ them?”

“I’ll deliver them myself, of course. I can tow a troop carrier behind my ship. They would take too long to reach you without a gravity drive.”

“Of course.” Blue was now beaming in earnest. “And I’ll put my finest Turquoises to work designing your monument. I’ll ‘deliver’ them to you, along with the Bismuths and materials you’ll need.”

Yellow blinked. “My monument?”

Blue gazed up at the pale head and torso that overshadowed them and the city below. “You’re going to be off conquering a new planet,” she said. “The Gems on your first colony should have something to remind them of you. It may be centuries before they see you again.”

Yellow knew that a Gem measuring up to ideal specifications ought to be able to carry on in her work without being hindered by longing, or loneliness, or any other kind of feeling. White, perfect as she was, would presumably not feel anything from their absence other than the assurance that they were fulfilling their purpose.

“A statue is a statue,” Yellow said. “No one will ever mistake it for the real thing.”

“No,” Blue agreed, “but we all just have to make do.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that expressions like “more perfect” are widespread enough that most dictionaries consider them standard usage. White is just a pedantic asshole.
> 
> For the first chapter I took some inspiration from creation myths about the first human beings. So in this chapter when showing how White first met Yellow and Blue, I had in mind that they would hide from her like Adam and Eve hide from God when he enters the garden of Eden in Genesis. Later I realized that I already wrote another Bellow fic that references the Genesis story in the title. It’s a coincidence, I swear. >_<
> 
> I tried to depict a Gem empire at a much earlier stage of technological development. Think of the Spanish empire racking up so many colonies that they could only reach by getting in wooden sailing ships and spending months at sea. I figured that with more primitive technology, plus lack of backup from the other Diamonds, Yellow and Blue’s first colonies would have taken much longer for them to establish compared to later on, when Pink managed to set up the kindergartens on Earth in just a few centuries. 
> 
> I don’t really care for this trope I’ve seen sometimes where Blue is considered a weaker or less accomplished Diamond just because she doesn’t have the same warrior CEO personality as Yellow. I tried to present them as both having different strengths that cater to different aspects of building a totalitarian galactic empire. I’m also a little iffy about the idea of White having cute nicknames for each of the other Diamonds, calling Yellow and Blue some variation of “Sunlight” and “Moonlight” respectively. For one, moons don’t produce their own light, so these would seem to reinforce the notion that Blue is considered lesser than Yellow. And also, while on Earth we’re used to having a yellow sun and a silvery moon, other suns and moons come in many different colors, so there’s no reason a space-based being would associate those particular colors with those heavenly bodies. So for this fic White ends up saying “dear” a lot instead. :P


End file.
